Can Long Island Still Afford the Islanders?
Over at NHL FanHouse this morning, Chris Botta is reporting that six different municipalities, including both Kansas City and the New York City borough of Queens, are interested in becoming the new home of the New York Islanders. I don’t doubt Botta’s sources and I don’t doubt his enthusiasm for the Lighthouse Project, the redevelopment plan that Islanders owner Charles Wang believes is necessary for the team to stay on Long Island. I don’t doubt that keeping the Islanders where they are is what NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman wants too. After all, despite the team’s woes on the ice — they haven’t won a playoff series since 1993 — this is a franchise that won four Stanley Cups, won 19 straight playoff series and put five players, a head coach and a team executive in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Moving a franchise with that sort of pedigree is not a headache Bettman wants, especially if he wants to avoid larger questions about the financial viability of the NHL and other franchises. And, fi
